SILCHAR: Nilambazar mammoth meet of BJP Mahila Morcha bordering Bangladesh in the Karimganj district of Barak Valley was well-timed and well-placed and was significant in more than one way. It was not very far from here at Mollaganj that Digvijay Singh, AICC general secretary and poll in-charge of Assam, now a known Sangh Parivar baiter, made the highly ‘irresponsible’ and ‘provocative’ statement on Bengali Hindu refugees calling them infiltrators and sought their deportation as well to Bangladesh. This evoked both indignation and condemnation from people cutting across political allegiance as the sizeable section of population of the valley, south Assam, are the victims of partition and subsequent atrocities by successive governments in Bangladesh, erstwhile East Pakistan.
It was more than clear that Digvijay Singh without moorings in his own State of Madhya Pradesh is trying to reassert himself by playing the rabid ‘communal card’ and to outsmart Rahul Gandhi in his tirade against BJP and RSS.
Nitin Gadkari, BJP President, blasted Digvijay for playing with the fate of refugees and advised him not to indulge in ‘divisive politics’ for the sake of ‘vote-banks’ Rather, the Congress leader should concentrate his time and energy in fighting corruptions and scams in which his own party governments at the Centre and the State of Assam were embroiled. Castigating him, Gadkari asked, “Is Hindusthan the personal property of Digvijay”? He further reminded him, “People are no longer to be deceived by the communal and casteist politics of Congress.”
The most virulent attack came from Bijoya Chakravorty MP who thundered that if the “Hindu refugees were served with ‘quit notices’to leave for Bangladesh, similar notices would be served on him by the people”. She went a step further to say rather people themselves should unite to serve ‘quit notice’ on Congress send it lock, stock and barrel to Bangladesh. Congress rule in Delhi and Dispur has nothing to give to Assam but Bangladeshis, she fumed. Using sarcasm and irony, Bijoya Chakravorty said, Congress first emerged with a pair of bullocks, then a calf and cow and now hand which she pointed out “is festering with taints and scams and deserve to be either buried or thrown into river Kushiara.”
Smriti Irani, President of Mahila Morcha and a well known small screen star, did not either lack the missile or salvo to fire at Digvijay whom she asked instead of spewing venom on Sangh Parivar by levelling all sorts of fanciful allegations should do some homework on Assam and its Hindu refugees. The Congress leader, she advised, should also prepare himself to answer many questions from women of south Karimganj about unending corruptions by the leaders of his party, lack of development, unabated price-rise, unemployment, misuse and misappropriation of money allotted for welfare schemes and projects, growing incidence of atrocities on them. He should also show these poor and poverty-stricken women the wave of developments and trace of election sops as claimed by Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi. Smriti Irani said the only alternative to change their socio-economic condition of people “is to bring in BJP to power”.
Kabindra Purkayastha MP recalled the rule of NDA regime under Atal Behari Vajpayee to highlight how the country was strengthened and saw the pace of development in infrastructure and economy after long years of misrule of Congress. It was for the people to bring about the change for good governance.
Sarvananda Sonowal, former MP, now with BJP, assured the masses that if their party comes to power at Dispur, it would investigate all scams and corruption cases and would put on trial all those found guilty and work for the betterment of Assam.
